Destiny 2: Do Osiris’ Lost Prophecies Predict The Future Of The Destiny Story?
Way back in late 2017, we got the very first Destiny 2 expansion: Curse of Osiris. This expansion did many things, it gave us our first in game interaction with the character of Osiris who we had previously only read about in scattered lore cards, it gave us the legendary ‘Two tokens and a blue’ meme which just about summed up most people’s opinions of the expansion, and it also gave us the Lost Prophecies.
These Lost Prophecies are… well, prophecies from Osiris’ time within the Infinite Forest which many believe describe every major moment in the Light and Dark saga, past, present and future. In effect, they are the key to the cipher that is the entire Destiny story, and they’ve been right in front of us this whole time. There are ten of them in total and for the most part they are incredibly vague as all prophecies are because, as Osiris puts it: “Prophecies are tricky things: they change the future they foretell. When a seer shares their knowledge of a coming event-any event, whether good or ill-there will always be those who gather to prevent it. Say too little and your meaning is lost. Say too much and you have made the task of your enemies easier. You must say just enough so that the few who can listen will hear.”
Below I will detail the first five Lost Prophecy verses and explain what event(s) I believe them to be referencing. A quick note before we begin: the lore tab for the Traveler’s Judgement 5 sidearm states that there is an in-universe theory that the first five verses detail the destruction of the Black Garden’s Heart up to the Traveler’s awakening. I am prefacing this whole discussion by saying that I am very confident that that theory is mostly wrong… mostly. Therefore I will be discussing alternate interpretations. Let’s begin.
The Black Garden
Garden Progeny 1
(1)Two siblings cleaved by time and space, (2)reflections never found alone,
(3)The ending of the eldritch race — (4)a path long seen but never known.
Garden Progeny refers to the Sol Progeny that the Guardian fights in the Black Garden at the end of the Destiny 1 campaign, this is their first major accomplishment and they are now irreversibly an integral part of the Light and Dark saga.
(1)This verse obviously refers to the Light and Dark, who we know were forces that existed before the creation of time and space thanks to the ‘Unveiling’ lore book.
(2)Additionally we know that both are defined by their contrasts to each other, e.g: One cannot exist without the other, both Light and Dark must exist in order to maintain the universe, so they are ‘never found alone’. This is one of the major points made during the Prophecy dungeon and it’s CODA armour lore tabs, a universe absent of one or the other would be a horrible existence for any being.
(3)I’m assuming this refers to the approaching end of the Light and Dark saga, the eldritch race in question being the Light/Gardener and the Darkness/Winnower who would fit the description of eldritch as they are generally thought of as beyond simple mortal comprehension.
(4) Also in the ‘Unveiling’ lore book, the Darkness discusses how neither they, nor the Light are truly sure if either are ultimately immortal. The Darkness did acknowlegde that it was always a possibility but there had never been any confirmation, that is, until the destruction of the Dark Heart in the Black Garden proved beyond doubt that it was possible.
The Red War
The Conqueror 2
(1)To Tower comes a war in red; (2)an orphan sounds the empire’s call.
(3)Mortal angels mourn the dead while (4)lightless light wraps night in pall.
The Conqueror is Dominus Ghaul, the ruthless leader of the Cabal Red Legion, who became famous for his conquests of numerous systems with his Almighty weapon platform.
(1) Nothing too subtle here, the prophecy refers to the Red Legion attack on the Tower and Last City.
(2) We know Ghaul was an orphan and he was the one who led the attack.
(3) ‘Mortal angels’ refers to the Guardians, previously immortal warriors who now, without the Light, can’t be resurrected anymore when killed, they are now mortal.
(4) The ‘lightless light’ is the Traveler, a beacon often refered to as a light in the dark, which has now been caged and drained of it’s titular Light by Ghaul.
Forsaken
Jack Queen King 3
(1)An army meets, and stands, and falls. (2)Three nobles wage their hopeless war.(3) In shifting madness, evil crawls. (4) One stands above the battle’s roar.
Jack Queen King alludes to a royal family in a standard card deck, we have two royal families in Destiny, those being the Awoken family of Mara Sov, Uldren Sov, as well as the first Wrath Sjur Eido. The other being the Hive family of Oryx, Savathun, and Xivu Arath. Crucially, both of these families’ stories often intertwine and they are arguably parallels of each other, most obviously the cunning and manipulative queens and their adventurous and thrill/challenge seeking brothers.
(1)I believe this is referring to the endless curse cycle in the Dreaming City. The army of Awoken Corsairs continually steps up to fight the curse (meets), they hold their ground for a while (stands) but ultimately they fail (falls), only for the loop to reset and they do it all again.
(2) I’m not 100% sure about this but the three nobles must be the three Techeuns that we rescued during the Last Wish raid and Corrupted strike. I’m no expert in Awoken society, but I believe powerful individuals such as Techeuns would be considered nobles and obviously the ‘hopeless war’ is the never ending fight against the curse cycle.
(3) ‘Shifting madness’ could be a result of the repetitiveness of the curse, constantly replaying events over and over. The ‘evil’ in question I believe to be Savathun, or her minions in general, as the curse is of her design and directly benefits her.
(4) I am sure this line refers to Queen Mara Sov herself, who made her return during this time but did not directly involve herself in the battle, instead offering guidance and insight to us every few weeks via the Oracle Engine.
Shadowkeep
Machina Dei 4
(1)A charnel but effulgent orb — (2)beacon in a loathsome dark —
(3)Fêted, fetid corpses rise — (4)a too-long-absent gibbous spark.
Machina Dei is Latin and is not to be confused with Deus Ex Machina, which loosely translates to ‘God from the Machine’. Machina Dei on the other hand loosely translates to ‘The Machine of a God’, which sounds like it is referring to the Traveler but in fact it could also mean the Pyramind ship that was discovered under the crust of Luna. Given the contents of this prophecy, the latter seems much more likely.
(1) This ‘charnel but effulgent orb’ is almost a one-to-one description of the artifact found inside the Pyramid at the end of the Shadowkeep campaign. Charnel means ‘associated with death’ which perfectly fits the Pyramids and Darkness relics in general. Effulgent, meanwhile, means ‘shining brightly/radiant’ which also fits, as the artifact in game is shining brightly when first gifted.
(2) This ‘beacon in a loathsome dark’ refers to the fact that the artifact itself acts as a beacon. For example, it quickly began emmitting a signal that guided guardians into the Black Garden and the secrets within, and it also acted as a conduit for communication between the Guardian and the Darkness itself in the form of the lore book ‘Unveiling’.
(3) The ‘corpses’ in question are the Nightmares, physical manifestations of previous foes and fears faced by guardians. These extraordinary adversaries were conjured by the Luna Pyramid from the moment it was uncovered by Eris Morn.
(4) ‘Gibbous’ when referring to the Moon, upon which the Shadowkeep expansion takes place, means more than half of it is illuminated. Therefore in this context I believe ‘gibbous spark’ means a ‘spark’ of knowledge, specifically knowledge about the Darkness. Prior to this point the Guardian had a good understanding of the Light as they had been wielding it for years, however they possessed very little understanding of the Darkness. This means that their collective understanding of these two forces could never be over half because of the complete lack of Darkness information. But once the Darkness started communicating directly with the Guardian through the ‘Unveiling’ lore book, this tipped the scales, we started to hear the Darkness’ side of the things, and the use of the term ‘gibbous’ implies that we are now over the 50% mark for our knowledge about the Light and Dark.
Season Of The Worthy
Traveler’s Judgement 5
(1)A visitor ignites the sky, (2)and in the truth of light it dreams: (3)Above the dead and yet-to-die, (4)a legion’s blade with fire screams.
‘Traveler’s Judgement’ is actually talking about the ending of the Red War and how the Traveler did ultimately acknowledge Ghaul like he wanted, but at the same time it judged him as unworthy, destroying him in the process of re-awakening. Fast forward all the way to Season of Dawn now, and three Psions discover Osiris’ Sundial on Mercury and attempt to use it to re-write the ending of the Red War, presumably in favour of one where Ghaul’s judgement is different, where the Traveler does deem him worthy. The Psions’ subsequent defeat at the hands of guardians directly leads into the following season, Season of the Worthy, where the Almighty space craft is hurtling toward the Last City in a desperate final attempt at vengeance.
(1) The ‘visitor’ is the Almighty as it plummets toward the Last City. In the final few hours of it’s descent the craft does appear to ignite the sky, not only due to it burning up in the atmosphere but also because of Rasputin’s overwhelming barrage of weaponry that he brings to bear in order to destroy the Almighty once and for all.
(2) The ‘it’ referred to here is not the Almighty, but the Traveler, which is often described as communicating and thinking in the form of dreams. This is most clearly stated in the ‘Constellations’ lore book from the Season of Dawn. The line ‘in the truth of light’ could be attributed to either the Light within the Traveler itself, or to the natural light above created by the approaching spacecraft.
(3) The ‘dead’ are guardians, as all guardians are people who have previously died and then been resurrected later. The ‘yet-to-die’ are the rest of Humanity within the Last City, as all of them will at some point die. That’s one of the few constants within the Destiny universe: everything dies, it might not stay dead, but it still dies all the same.
(4) The ‘legion’s blade with fire screams’ is again referring to the Almighty crashing down to Earth. Calling it a ‘blade’ is simply metaphorical, as it is yet another weapon, such as a blade, that was at the Red Legion’s disposal. The next part is more literal, as the fragment of the Almighty that survives and narrowly misses the Tower is literally on fire when it screams past.
The second part of this article will cover verses six to ten, the latter of which will almost certainly contain clues to the ultimate conclusion of the Light and Darkness saga. Since the introduction of the Lost Prophecies almost four years ago now, it’s been fun to speculate every now and then on what each one could be predicting, and even more enjoyable to see them actually coming to fruition one by one. While the verses covered so far have only covered events that have already happened, hopefully that is only helping to prove that these prophecies are still coming to pass over time, that is of course if you agree with my interpretations so far! Stay tuned for part two.
Until Next Time.